


The Politics of Dating

by Dragon_Lord



Series: High School AU [7]
Category: Zoo (TV)
Genre: Dariela being the voice of reason, F/M, High School AU, Mentions of Sex, Mitch and Jamie being awkward dorks, mentions of US history
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 06:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11823084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragon_Lord/pseuds/Dragon_Lord
Summary: It's been two weeks since the semi-disastrous camping trip, and Jamie's having a hard time getting Mitch to talk about it.





	The Politics of Dating

**Author's Note:**

> This series isn't over til the fat lady sings!
> 
>  
> 
> (the fat lady being me, of course)

_August – Senior Year_

 

“Buchanan, Lincoln, Grant, uh…” Mitch faltered. “Damn it, always forget this one.”

“Come on, you got this,” said Jamie, balancing the open textbook on her crossed legs, trying not to smile at his frustrated expression. “Starts with an H…”

His nose scrunched up in concentration, but a second later his eyes popped open. “Hayes! Rutherford B. Hayes!”

“That’s right!”

Three days into their Senior year, and Jamie was already glad she’d opted out of the AP U.S. History class. She’d heard horror stories about the teacher, Mr. Wilson, from other students, but a test over all 40+ presidents in just the first week of class was a whole new level of torture.

Mitch rubbed at his eyes beneath his glasses and groaned. “I’m never gonna get this done by tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, you will,” she said, but he was shaking his head.

“Just leave me to my failure, Jamie,” he insisted, and she bit back a laugh at his theatrics. “It’s clear now that I’m destined to be a high school dropout. You deserve better.”

“Shut up.”

It was good that they had this distraction, something to latch onto to avoid talking about, well, other things.

Because they’d both been tense ever since the camping trip. Jamie had hoped that none of their friends would notice, but unfortunately, they hadn’t been that lucky.

Oddly enough, Dariela had been the one to approach her—on the very first day of class, no less—right after sixth period.

\--

_Her locker door was slammed shut just seconds after she’d pulled her books out, and Jamie jumped at the sudden sight of Dariela staring at her. She looked vaguely pissed-off, but Jamie had long since learned that that was kinda how she always looked._

_“All right, Campbell, spill.”_

_Jamie clutched her textbooks to her chest, confused and more than a little frightened. “Wha—? Spill what? What are you talking about?”_

_“You and your boyfriend Spock have been acting weird all day,” she said. “What’s up?”_

_“Nothing,” Jamie said, but even to her ears, it sounded like a lie. “N-nothing’s up, Mitch and I are fine.”_

_“Bull. Shit.”_

_She didn’t have to say anything more. That was the thing about Dariela—one glare and she could make anyone talk. Abe was the only one in the group that could withstand the heat, but Jamie wasn’t Abe, and within seconds, her façade cracked._

_“Can we not do this here?” she asked quietly, feeling more than a little vulnerable. Dariela’s gaze softened._

_“Come on,” she said. “I’ll drive you home. We can talk on the way.”_

_Jamie smiled. “Thanks.”_

_It took nearly the whole ride home for her to explain everything that had happened on the camping trip, after everyone else had gone to bed. She had always been good with words, but when it came to Mitch, things grew ramble-y and less-than-eloquent. When she finished, Dariela was quiet, and Jamie’s nerves multiplied._

_She was totally judging, wasn’t she? Did she think Jamie was a slut for what she did, or a tease for what she didn’t do?_

_Jamie was about to open her mouth and ask her directly when Dariela finally spoke._

_“Did he tell you who it was with?”_

_“No,” she said, still uncomfortable. “Do you think I should’ve asked? I didn’t want to make things any weirder than they already were, and knowing who the girl was would only make start picturing it, and I really, really didn’t want that, so…” She trailed off, and the other girl nodded._

_“Nah, you’re right,” she said simply._

_It wasn’t like it was any great mystery, really. As far as Jamie knew, Mitch had only seriously dated two girls before her, so it obviously had to have been one of them. But she didn’t want to know. She really didn’t._

_After a pause, Jamie asked, “Have… you and Abe, uh…?” Dariela looked at her with a raised brow and she backpedaled. “God, sorry. That’s totally not my business, I’m sorry—”_

_“No, it’s okay,” she laughed. “I’m just messing with you. We have, yeah.”_

_“Oh.” It didn’t come as a surprise, really. But the thought that Jamie may be the only one left in the group who hadn’t yet lost her virginity suddenly made her self-conscious._

_There was another beat of silence before Dariela spoke again. “Look,” she said. “I get why you’re upset and all, but you guys weren’t dating when it happened, so…”_

_“No, I know that!” Jamie said hurriedly. “I know, and it’s not like I’m gonna slutshame him or anything.”—Dariela snorted out a laugh at her choice of words, but she continued—“I’m not even mad at him, really. I just… it’s awkward now. We haven’t even kissed since it happened. It’s like, it’s like he doesn’t… want me anymore.”_

_There it was, out in the open. The fear that had been plaguing her for two whole weeks now. Saying it out loud seemed to give it more weight, and Jamie gulped down the lump in her throat. She wished they were having this conversation somewhere else, anywhere else, rather than the unfamiliar car on the bright, suburban street, a block away from her house._

_When Dariela spoke again, her voice was uncharacteristically soft. “You know that’s not true. I’ve only known you guys for a couple of months now, but trust me, the guy is crazy about you. From what Abe tells me, he has been for a while.”_

_It was a comfort to hear, but Jamie’s uncertainty lingered. “So what should I do?”_

_“You’re not gonna like this,” she shrugged, “but I think you should just talk to him.”_

\---

She knew Dariela was right, though it wasn’t easy to admit it. The only real way to get to the root of the problem would be to deal with it head-on. She knew that, but it still took her nearly two days to get up the courage to talk to Mitch.

Now, nearly an hour into their study session, they still hadn’t addressed the issue, and Jamie was getting impatient.

“I mean, we’re Seniors, for god’s sake,” Mitch was saying, and she re-focused her attention, “and our first test is just naming all the presidents. It’s completely ridiculous.”

“Yeah, totally,” Jamie added, half-heartedly.

As always, Mitch seemed to sense that something was wrong, and he sat up on his bed. “You okay?” he asked her.

Jamie paused, biting her lip, then abruptly said, “Are we really not gonna talk about it?”

“Talk about what?”

She rolled her eyes. Getting Mitch to discuss his emotions was like pulling teeth sometimes, which she really wasn’t in the mood for today. She rotated in his desk chair to face him fully, frowning.

“You _know_ what,” she insisted. “The camping trip? Sharing a tent? Almost having sex?”

“We didn’t _almost_ have sex,” he finally said, frustrated. “There was no _almost_. Why does everyone keep saying that? It wasn’t—”

“Wait, everyone? Who’s everyone?”

Mitch suddenly grew evasive. “No one, uh, I mean… okay, just Jackson. I think Chloe put him up to it.”

“You told Jackson?” she groaned. “Ugh, he’s like my brother, Mitch! I didn’t want him to know about that! Dariela was bad enough…”

“Dariela? How did she find out?”

Jamie faltered, blushing. “I, I talked to her after school on Monday.” When Mitch just stared at her, she meekly added, “I didn’t want to, she made me!”

He flopped back onto the bed, looking utterly defeated. “She’ll definitely be tell Abe, then. So now everyone knows our business. Fantastic.”

Jamie took pity and went to join him, sitting gingerly on the edge of the bed. The mattress dipped beneath her with a faint squeak, but he didn’t open his eyes.

“I guess they were gonna find out eventually,” she said. “You know it’s impossible to keep secrets from them.”

He sighed and rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses. They needed to be cleaned. “They did figure out we were dating the Monday right after prom, before we even said anything.”

“Well,” she tilted her head as her smile widened, “that was because they caught us making out in your car before class.” Mitch laughed.

“That may have been a factor.”

She chuckled and scooted closer, leaning back on his pillows to look down at him. She’d missed his laugh. It had only been two weeks, and she’d nearly gone crazy not talking to him, how lame was that? Finally, he sat up to face her.

“Okay, then,” he said. “Let’s talk.”

There was a slight pause when neither of them knew where to start.

“Are- are you still mad at me for what happened?” Mitch asked, a bit tentatively.

She hesitated. “I was,” she said truthfully, “a bit, when you told me. But, I guess I was just embarrassed. I, uh, I didn’t think I was the only one who hadn’t… but I guess I am.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said.

“I know.”

If Jamie wasn’t embarrassed the first time they talked about it, she definitely was now. She pulled one of his pillows into her lap, hugging it close as if for protection. It smelled like him. That didn’t really help matters.

“Do you… want me to tell you who—?”

She shook her head abruptly, holding up a hand. “No, don’t tell me. That’s your business, and I think I’d rather not know, anyway.”

Mitch nodded. “Okay.”

Another pause— _there weren’t so many awkward pauses before they started dating, were there?_ —until Mitch finally spoke again, bolder.

“Look, are you sure you’re not mad at me?” He wasn’t really looking her in the eye, but he almost sounded hurt. “Because things have been really weird lately, and we haven’t kissed—shit, we haven’t even held hands since that night!”

So he’d noticed, too. “I thought that was because _you_ were mad at _me_!”

Mitch stared at her, confused. “Why would I be mad at you? I was just trying to give you space cause I thought you were mad.”

“But I wasn’t!”

“Neither was I!”

A beat passed before they started laughing at the absurdity of the whole situation. The tension, heavily present only minutes before, had started to dissolve, and the much more easy-going nature of their relationship was coming back.

“I’m sorry,” Jamie said as the laughter passed. “I’ve probably been acting weird. I just didn’t know what to do about it.”

“It’s okay. I’ve been acting weird, too.”

Their hands gravitated together, almost on instinct, and Jamie felt a rush of comfort as his palm pressed against hers.

To tell the truth, Mitch was really her first serious boyfriend. It had been coming on for almost three years, after all, which was longer than she could say for any other relationship. Sure, she’d had flings in the past, Ben and Ethan (and almost Logan), but none of them stuck around for very long, and she definitely didn’t love them, not like she loved Mitch.

Wait.

Her heart stuttered as she re-considered that thought. Love.

She loved Mitch.

Holy shit, _she loved him._

Something must’ve shown on her face, because Mitch was looking at her curiously (why did she always have to wear her emotions so brazenly when he was like a locked vault?).

“You okay?” he asked.

“I…” The words were pushing at her lips, begging to be set free. Much as Jamie tried to swallow them down, they burst out anyway, rather rushed. “Iloveyou.”

Mitch blinked. “I know.”

She paused, halfway between confused and irritated.

_I swear to god, if he’s using this as an excuse to quote Star Wars, I’m gonna—_

But a memory raced through her head—cold October wind whipping through her hair, cheeks stained with tears, feeling like the world was ending—then, his arm around her, crying into his shirt, pulling him into a tight hug and whispering the words into his ear—

_“I love you.”_

He’d said it back, she remembered, halting and awkward as only a teenage boy could be. She hadn’t had time to wonder if he meant it the same way she did.

Now, she smiled nervously and held his hand a little tighter.

“No,” she said, “I really love you.”

She could see the exact second he understood; his brown eyes widened a fraction and he didn’t say anything for several seconds.

Jamie cleared her throat. “This is the part where you say something,” she joked weakly, growing more and more self-conscious. “I mean, not that you have to say it back or anything, because you totally don’t, I just wanted you to know and now you do, and I—”

He cut her off with a kiss and the familiar taste of his lips made her forget what she was going to say next. In a second, she kissed back, gripping the front of his shirt to keep him close.

“I really love you, too,” he finally said after pulling away, and the relief that rushed through her was so strong, it was nearly a tangible thing.

His nose brushed against hers and he was smiling wider than she’d ever seen, not that she was any different. The warmth in her chest spread all the way to her toes and she couldn’t say anything more, too happy to articulate. Instead, she tackled Mitch in a hug, knocking him back onto his comforter. He let out an adorable little _‘oomph’_ that segued into a breathless laugh.

Neither of them made any move to sit back up or untangle themselves from one another. Jamie was perfectly content as she was, arms wrapped tightly around his middle. Mitch’s hand came up to comb gently through her hair and she smiled against his shirt.

“We should get back to studying,” he muttered a minute later. Jamie groaned in answer and felt him chuckle. “C’mon, I’m not even halfway through. Who comes after Hayes?”

“Garfield.”

“Right, Garfield, uh, Arthur, Cleveland…”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoy this series, leave a kudos or a review!  
> (If you don't enjoy it, just leave a kudos)


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